A Lifetime Debt

To clear her brother's gambling debts, Eliza Blackwell sold herself to Damian Wren. For three years she endured every humiliation at his side, answering his every call, because she needed the money to hold her crumbling family together.

When kidnappers seize her and discover she is Damian's secret wife, they call him for a ransom. He is busy spending on his childhood sweetheart, Julian, and dismisses her: she is not even worth ten dollars, so they may as well kill her. Wounded and discarded, Eliza takes a knife and turns it on herself, whispering that the debt is paid.

She wakes in a hospital to find Damian demanding she donate blood for Julian and fetch porridge through the rain. Bending to pick up his money, she resolves this is the last errand she will ever run for him.